Shadow: The Team
by withJesus
Summary: What would you say if we put Shadow in a team like in Sonic Heroes, make him pass the the trials to cure NIDS and explain why he was not in Sonic Unleashed. He joined by Rouge, Silver, Blaze and others welcome you to a story of growing up and fighting for your purpose.
1. Letter 01 – The Team

After Rivals, Rush and before Unleashed.

Greetings, Shadow, here:

I am currently being deployed for GUN into a distress site. War it is around me, I still don't know how this can be stopped by diplomacy. I have been here as a guardian to keep peace and while I have seen people better for it, they still seem anxious, lacking food, I see nurses running and I do not have a Chaos Emerald right now. I guess GUN gave the green I kept thinking like if it was mine, to Sonic. Good thing I can use weapons, cars, I mean I have learned how to use them, it may count for something, right.

The other day we found mercenaries, people whose only purpose in life consists of robbing others. They gave us trouble; I swear I will avenge my comrades who were hurt.

To my surprise, yesterday, I saw a big thing in the town close to us. I ran toward it to investigate it. When I reached the place, throngs of people were surrounding Silver the Hedgehog. He was holding a photo of me, heh, good idea. When he approached me, a girl was following him. This girl who I may guess is his friend was carrying a Chaos Emerald, the purple one.

"Is that a Chaos Emerald?" I had to know, "Yes, we brought it from the future" he answered.

"What are you doing here?" I inquired. He, always with that happy face, turned to his friend briefly and then explained to me they were visiting me because they wanted me to help them save their future.

"Let me present you", Silver says happily.

"I am PLAYER 1" she interrupts Silver, I reacted with a "what!? I need a real name." Silver started laughing but then he saw my face and he decided to excuse his friend by saying it was important for her. I understood they are joking and tell her I need a real name; she shook her head and denied my request.

I told them that people were in peril here, if I abandoned them, GUN would probably jail me for life. Besides, I point towards the people and then circled my index finger to tell them "this is my cause."

Silver did not want to take a No for an answer and gave me an offer I could not refuse. He offered me the Chaos Emerald, I guessed you can say it is the 8th Chaos Emerald. He added that they both were going to help me do whatever I had to do if that meant I would help them after my mission for GUN ended.

For a moment I felt my conscience speaking to me therefore I recommended Sonic.

"Couldn't you have gone to Sonic?"

"Yes but no, he has something very important to do soon." Silver replied me.

"How important!? You are making me a plea for your future, your people." I told them while feeling indignant by their rejection of alternatives.

"Yes, but without this present, there would not be a future, right?" the girl told me a bit sheepish.

"Okay, I accept your help in exchange for mine, later." I told them. "The first thing we are going to do is we are going to stop some militia forces who are causing havoc near the GUN base. I will teach them not to mess with me.

"What is a gun base?" the girl tells me.

"GUN means a Good UN, a Good United Nations, an organization of many different countries." I lie to her because I think the name is too immature.

"Our base is around, we will protect it, okay? Let's go. It is in that direction." I pointed to the path that will take us to our next destination and when we started taking our route, I noted that each one of them is on each of my sides, we are now a team and me of course, the leader.

I will write you later, probably I will have less time.

Shadow


	2. Letter 02 – The Report

I have to share a bit of bad news; GUN could not find the cure for NIDS. But I want to start from where I left off.

Before going to meet the bandits, I asked Silver if they wanted to stay at the town; I suddenly felt uneasy with risking them. Both reassured me they can take care of themselves.

When I saw many of the criminals in the outsides of their stronghold, I decided to test a new skill I trained back there when I was still drinking coffee at your house, Controlled Blast. Simply, I just blasted their bodies remotely, but it needs a lot of Chaos Energy.

The rest, we did it as a team however I ought to admit that I am becoming numb of all this thing, it bores me out to not be able to go beyond my role and end these battles by winning them.

Next thing I did after we took control was to look for the GUN leader and tell him that I was going to the next town to keep peace. But he answered me that they needed me in the base. "Why?" I asked and he said he didn't know.

Thus, I took the duo with me back; I left them in a café I like to visit here while I take care of whatever GUN needed.

Just after entering the base, an employee brought me to the digital top-secret message, I asked him why nobody re-sent it to me, and he replied that the message is from GUN Labs and it was too important. The message contained a report from GUN Labs stating that the results of the tests they performed with my blood to find the cure for NIDS were negative, however, the results were promising because the scientists believe that with more internal energy, my blood could survive enough time in patients to make the difference.

The problem is that we made the test already using the Chaos Emeralds, thus I have no idea how I can have more energy, maybe asking Knuckles to use the Master Emerald, that would make Rouge happy but not me. I just want this thing to end. If they cannot then just admit it, maybe they are just hiding their incompetence or maybe it's not possible, at all.

I went back to the café to meet the duo. It seems that Silver caught into my disappointment, because he asked me what happened when my phone started ringing and continued ringing because I did not want to answer. They complained so I took the call. We were going to see each other again in a while but she needed me in a mission she was currently on. The issue is, I had promise to fulfill.

I use the chance to talk to her about the report and while she couldn't offer a solution, I accept that the conversation relieved the stress.

When the call with Rouge ended the first thing, I did was to talk about my current trials with discovering the cure for NIDS, about the pact I made with GUN for their help. The failure from their part or maybe they have been lying all the time to make me work for them.

"How much time do you need me?" I wanted to know to try to calculate a possible way to fulfill both works.

"Days or even weeks, it depends on our luck and the character of people we must meet." Silver confessed his estimate is not helpful except to say it was a long time.

"Let's wait for Rouge to arrive and greet her before parting to wherever you need me to be. Besides, it is getting dark and you need a place to rest. So, I guess two rooms, right?" I feel a little doubt in me, telling me I was being stingy.

While Silver thought for a bit about it I caught the girl nodding and then shaking her head, but I was going to be that kind of host, thus I paid two rooms.

I am waiting for Rouge to arrive. I'll write you after.


	3. Letter 03 – Rouge

Let me tell you something I do not thing is right; Rouge came wearing a white T-Shirt over her normal attire. I protested "Are you CENSORED?" I couldn't avoid the desire. She replied as quick as she could "for you!" and laughed. "Shadow, seriously, we are always going to be friends" she told me, "What do you want?" I answered surprised.

"Maybe we could try to get the Master Emerald" I told her. I need the energy and she wanted to see the giant Emerald, I guess it was a good idea until she kicked the can by saying that the mission had a bigger priority.

I presented Rouge to Silver and immediately after seeing the girl, Rouge asked her "Are you his girlfriend? I mean, that nickname and all." But PLAYER 1 denied it. I prefer to call her the girl or Silver's friend.

"What is your plan? Save the world? Are you still following Eggman Nega?" She kept going, but it gave me an idea, "He could help find the cure! For NIDS." In disbelief, Silver said Nega would never help, but his friend girl told him enthusiastically that sometimes you must to be a daredevil.

Silver declared he does not know anything of Eggman Nega from those previous times they met.

"Our mission is to get Shadow a girlfriend" the girl said. Leaving Rouge speechless. She just turned to see the color of the emerald and I am not sure what she might have imagined but I may take a guess.

I will summarize you what the plan was. Rouge had been working as a double agent for GUN, infiltrated in this group of criminals who want something I have no idea yet. But my mission is to trust her, and I do. But we fought over the issue of the country law, because we are GUN and we cannot arrest any local, thus she had to have support from GUN. She corrected me saying that we are not GUN, we work for it, she does not identify herself by her work; it left me thinking how I am supposed to identify to every person I know. Surely you don't want me calling myself the ultimate lifeform.

I then asked, "Have they any relationship with the doctor?" Out of all possibilities, I came with that. Genius!

"No, that I know, he seems not to be part of this." Rouge confessed.

"Okay, tomorrow let's depart." Rouge said before she went her way.

Well that tomorrow is today, and we are going to rendezvous in the same café I frequent. I might not write you again in a while. But whatever it is, I hope it does not take much.


	4. Answer – Robotnik

Shadow, I am enjoying this writing thing; do not mind Rouge, she is a good girl. We both need this, as we are the only family each other has, always keep in mind, you are a Robotnik too; such last name it's a source of pride, immense pride that normally Sonic and his useless friends would not understand. You are different Shadow; you are the ultimate lifeform! Don't tell me you don't want to use the truth! You deserve that pleasure. We are superior beings.

This Silver boy is possibly hiding something, Sonic doing something important is as probably as Knuckles finding another echidna. He possibly wants a favor only you can fulfill, and that would mean it is related to your Chaos Powers.

About the Labs result, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that besides the Chaos Emerald and the Master Emerald, there exist another set, the Sol Emeralds. I have analyzed them and discover they in unison with the Chaos Emeralds can create a new form; I call it, The Hyper Mode.

The bad news is you cannot access these emeralds because they are outside Earth and the owner, like Knuckles, does not like to share; you must steal them.

Wishing you luck in your job, from Robotnik to Robotnik,

Ivo.


	5. Answer – Vanilla

Hi from all of us here, the girls miss you. Please know that preparing coffee for you was always a delight, from the mocha to the rest we prepared. I admit I let the first letter slipped to the girls without reading it first and Amy decided to go after her Sonic.

I couldn't let Cream go with her, it might be too dangerous, I do not want to risk my beloved baby. I am glad to know that you are making friends. The reason these letters work is because they give you a need to destress and write to a friend. Well you have three here, but it is good that you can count on having friends where you work.

I still wait to see you return, you do make a difference here, for example Amy loved to searched and prepared new coffees even if she did not drink any. I still don't know why you allow her to charge you, I would never charge you. I have no idea why you followed her whim, but she was always happy to see you; and you too need more friends outside work.

Remember when someone is hurt is always better to take care for them, do not risk your partners over any fight as they have families waiting for them too. Take care of yourself and them.

Hoping to read more from you.

Vanilla.


	6. Letter 04 – The Boyfriend

So much has happened, I guess I will write you in parts, save them and then send you all the parts together when I can, because I have discovered things that I believe were baseless and I am currently writing you from a place where I cannot send you anything.

To start with, Rouge had a boyfriend and we were following him, what's with that? He entered his place, outside looked rough and ugly, almost beaten down by the war near it. Ugly place, but then we entered, and it was as expensive as you can imagine. Later, we discovered it was beautiful because they were two different places, the old place connected to the new by a well-hidden portal, how can that be! You get it? Chaos Control, who needs that?

We had to defeat the people inside, they were part of the big network of criminals but what surprised me was that they are from another place, another dimension. I cannot promise you understand, but they come from outside Earth and outside spacetime. We had entered this new dimension.

PLAYER 1, the girl was enthusiastic to clean the whole place, it was like she was a mini-crazy monster. It was my first indication that this duo had more to tell that what they were letting on.

Later, after they took control of the building, we went to a room in the basement where they have the computers and Rouge could access it and we found some of their plans. They wanted to dethrone a queen, daring! They talked about an infinite power source that this queen has that makes her a formidable person; they called it, the power of the starts, the Jeweled Scepter.

What if I could use that instead of having to beg for more emeralds from you know who, the scientists could create the cure.

Silver reacted anxious, he in effect pronounced: "the queen, I know her, we have to tell her."

Rouge ordered me to stay until police arrived. We all waited and with the police came a cat girl who thanks Rouge with a hug. At that moment I thought I was still in Earth; thus, I did not pay much attention to it, but it results that she is the princess of this new Dimension. The dimension's name is Sol, but people called it The Sol Dimension.

I will write you more later, a summary about this scepter, the queen that holds it and this dimension.


	7. Letter 05 – The Queen

Let's start with the known things, the cat girl's name is Blaze, she is the princess of this place. She and Silver seems not to be in good terms. I did not want to pay attention to it, but oh well.

We visit the queen because she is indeed Silver's friend. When we met her, we realize she is the Phoenix, the myth with beautiful wings and dress does indeed gives her that royalty aspect.

The moment she saw Silver with us, she came fast to receive us. She called Silver "My boy", Silver later explained to us, she does like him as a son. She doesn't have a son nor a husband. She is a widow and a single mother, but the incredible part is that she looks the same age as her daughter.

She gazed directly at me, and ask me if I was Shadow, "the super boy" she told me. I guess Silver has talked to her about me. "I approve you" she told me.

Silver explained to her everything we saw back in the building of Rouge's ex-boyfriend. She did not seem concerned and instead decided she wanted to hear about me. Silver told him about my need for energy when doctors were to extract my blood in labs from The Earth. She showed more passion for it, specifying what she wanted in exchange for that.

It seems this dimension was not created perfectly and there are some rifts in the space-time in this planet, the Scepter keeps the flaws stable but if it were taken way from its place then geological issues would begin to happen due to the influence of these flaws, on this world at least. We needed to fix it; I told her I have no idea how to do that, but she told me I could practice, confident in the role the Scepter has for now. Her whole point is to be able to use the Scepter freely.

She requested as part of our mission, to travel with her daughter, she believed that her daughter could use the journey.

I requested the scope of the mission, how many places we were going to visit. She told us that Blaze will guide us and that there were 5 rifts.

Now we had to move to another room to meet Blaze. While we were going to the room, we use this free time to obtain some answers about this whole thing from Silver. Rouge asked him why Blaze disliked him.

Silver sighed and admitted it is true that she did not like him. The reason was and still is jealousy because of her mother. The Queen died and resurrected possibly around Blaze's birth and she has not been able to be a mother to Blaze. Sum that to the fact she likes Silver as a son, these facts equal a jealous Blaze for alone time with her mom. He said he realized it too late when Blaze protested it to both.

Rouge asked him a question that I have no idea how I would have answered. Did he wanted to stay with Phoenix? His answer was that he already has a family, he returned after blaze confronted him back to his future with his family.

A curious Rouge asked what had made him change his idea; PLAYER 1 said she was the reason, she asked him to come with her to the past, she wanted to know it.

I saw Rouge and raised my right eyebrow. They had a family issue and I did not think any of us wanted to get involved; of course, we already were.


	8. Letter 06 – The Call

I have to say I like Blaze, direct and to the point, happy. She is friendly with Rouge and while she prefers not to talk to Silver or PLAYER 1, none of them looks troubled by her presence.

Then we started to travel from place to place, visiting different regions, while I could write about some of them, I did not find anything extraordinary: buildings, people.

Each rift was huge, awesome in size, and I have to say I spent from 4 to 5 hours trying to close the first rift we came upon. The team became impatient, but they were doing nothing.

We travel to the other rifts; we fix them and well everything seems to go well, when a rift appeared in front of us. I didn't know it was possible to open rifts even with the scepter working; it's just that they are only temporal.

We entered the portal and in the other side, there were many robots. One was projecting something to the wall in front of us. What a surprise! It was Eggman Nega. But he looked different, older and weaker.

He said he was imprisoned by the criminal group to which Rouge's ex-boyfriend belonged before Blaze's arrested him. Blaze and Silver oppose the idea of helping him, but I saw the chance to obtain a genius for our cause.

I requested two things, he accepted to be arrested and he would help us find the cure for NIDS. He accepted because he couldn't say no.


	9. Letter 07 – The Multiverse

If you thought that another dimension was crazy, he told us that his captors came from a third one. He was captured into a third dimension and we were currently in that one. He gave us the location of all his captors. He wanted revenge but something that was clear is that he would not risk his few robots to make an attack on any of these places. But I was going to help him, and I was not thinking in turning back. I think that was the best decision.

Silver stated that we have completed the queen's mission, but I know better. What if GUN did not want to help, that they were just lying to keep me working to them. I asked them who will support me, they all accept, except that Blaze wanted to talk to her mother first. We decided to go explain this event to Phoenix and see if she gives us any advice. Before leaving, Silver asked the question we all have forgotten, "Who freed you?" because he had been sent to another place, it then it me that I never believed much of what these people say?

Nega told him "Another person who I didn't even see."

When we reached the queen's palace and talked to her, Blaze told her about what we had seen. She consulted her mother for the cause of this event. Are these dimensions related to the Sol Dimension? What is the connection?

Not knowing how to process such interesting news, she tried to explain what knowledge she had. She said that her husband and her were from planet Earth, there are proof of that, however her husband wanted a place for his kind only and look for a habitable planet. Using the Jeweled Scepter, he went away for a long time. He probably created many new dimensions with new families, until he came back with a place to live, a habitable planet.

They created the Sol Dimension from a portion of the normal universe. And they lived there; truly the king disappeared while he was king of the Sol Dimension, but she thinks probably one of his lovers did it. This all happened way before she adopted Blaze.

We started going back to the location where Nega opened the rift. But a small flying robot appeared in front of us and opened it for us.

After we entered, we went for them. I have to say we make a good team, or maybe I just writing this because they helped me.

We discovered something interesting; they have developed little bracelets with the capacity to open rifts, they worked but they were still demos thus I am not sure how long they will work.

Some of these criminals accused Rouge for having backhanded them when she acquired Blaze's friendship, but I do think, their mistake was to try to enter The Earth through a place near me! Yes, think it, they come near me, GUN was going to discover the whole issue through me, Rouge probably knew this and betrayed them. I mean, she was already friend with Blaze, right? She denied everything but knowing us, it is truth.

When we rescued Nega, he had been doing forced labor. Some of its robots followed us, I destroyed them thinking he was going to betray us, except he yelled that it was not about that, his robots were brining news and what I saw was not funny at all.


	10. Letter 08 – Soleanna

A human city had a giant fissure near its beach and water was falling into it, while the city was engulfed in flames. Chaos everywhere in the place. "Soleanna" Rouge told us while panicking. At the start I did not understand, but now I do, it was doctor Robonik who did it.

We had to decide, and I did, we were taking Nega to Phoenix and then going to Soleanna with these bracelets to help its people.

After leaving him with her, Blaze wanted to go with us. We thanked her and we departed. Once we got into the city, we started helping, our tasks were mainly to rescue people. Carrying the needy outside the chaos allowed us to see a daughter of the Duke of Soleanna, using a press conference to beg old mocha (the commander) for help. Her disguise couldn't change her voice, I asked people and they responded that she was the girl who came from the past. I suddenly felt Silver stopping me from moving, and I asked in a not polite way what was he hiding. Nobody is hiding it he said. This was what he needed help with, a cure for a girl he found about and rescued. I mean how can this whole thing be. I started crying, I asked him if that meant she was still sick. He told me, she was using medication, but it was still incurable.

Another thing I realized was that the commander from GUN knew it already and he didn't tell me.

I chose to go back to Phoenix and trusted Sonic will do his heroics. Nega was waiting for us and told me that I needed to donate more blood. While I knew I could not donate much as I had donated a lot to GUN, we proceeded with the blood extraction. While he worked, we came back to Soleanna to show myself to my sister. Blaze stayed at her home and now I am going to use this chance to send you all these drafts I have been saving.


	11. Letter 09 – The Hedgehog

I want to tell you quite more things, I am currently in the hospital, I fainted in GUN Labs, at least they …. Let me retake where I left off.

After we visited Maria in Soleanna, we stayed in the Duke's Mansion, he was acquaintance with Silver, and I am not sure if with PLAYER 1 too.

Blaze came looking for us to Soleanna, she knew how to contact Rouge, useful but strange. She reported that Nega had found the cure. He told me that the energy used with the Chaos Emerald was more than enough to produce the cure, basically GUN lied to me.

He said he talked with Phoenix to get humans to be tested and it worked. Of course, I recommended Maria under her new name, the name is useless I might say. The good thing is that they cured her; this guy is really the best.

Now I proceeded to take my revenge against the GUN scientist who are been lying to me all this time. I entered the labs with a policewoman, I don't know her name, but she said it was a gemstone. When I listen to one of the scientists talking to a girl; I remember it clearly.

The girl said: You mean, his blood can cure sickness, can cause the stem cells to regrow lost body parts.

The doctor replied: Yes, but his blood is in short supply and it still cannot regrow extremities, you would need way more of his blood but that would never be possible if we approve the cure for this sickness. They would only give you a nothing, I need to make sure you can use that nothing to do everything. I cannot press him; besides he is obsessed with NIDS.

To which the girl questioned if she could pay me to convince me, but he said that would be too risky.

The policewoman ended their conversation arresting them, except the girl was a hologram. She really was rich. Then he was afraid, I saw it, but he did not deserve the empathy he denied to people suffering of NIDS.

I don't remember what else happened. I tried to walk the hall and I still don't know anything after. I guess that was when I fainted. I just had a conversation with a doctor, she told me that my blood was not at the best level. I am sick, I have anemia. She said is not a big issue but while I recover there can changes to my body, they want to keep me here for a while.

A thing I found that cause me to feel excitement for her is that she was using a wheelchair, I sometimes learn something new, something better. I would have not expected a doctor in wheelchair, but I admit I like that, I felt excitement to see someone else winning against difficulties.


	12. Letter 10 – The Future

I just have a conversation with Phoenix, the queen and she wanted me to stay, I told her I wanted to think about it, how I am supposed to think about it, how I am supposed to leave GUN, I mean, they already discovered the cure for NIDS, the scandal cost a few scientists their work.

PLAYER 1 revealed me her family name at least, she says she is a Robotnik! I don't believe her, but I guess because I am one, she wants to follow my steps to become someone like me. I mean I am quite the male, however if she believes the last name is what counts, she is wrong there. I asked her how famous the Robotnik were in the future and she said, "We are huge!"

She then told me a secret of hers. She said there is a PLAYER 2. I just couldn't stop laughing. I wonder who invent more crazy things she or Amy.

I have to say goodbye. I call you after the meeting with some contacts of the queen; she told me quite a bunch of people are interested in me, so today I start. I can't believe how easy is for us to cross dimensions with those bracelets we found before.

Shadow


End file.
